Reham Rizk

Associate Professor, University of London

Reham Rizk is the Head of the Modelling Unit at the Egyptian Ministry of Planning and Economic Development and an Associate Professor of Economics in University of London and in the Master’s Program in Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University. She is also an Invited Researcher at J-PAL Middle East and North Africa at AUC, and the co-Founder and director of the Egypt Impact Lab, a collaboration between MPED and J-PAL that aims to strengthen the effectiveness of Egypt’s poverty reduction policies by rigorously evaluating promising and innovative government programs and a Research Fellow at the Economic Research Forum. Her current focus includes conducting an ongoing randomized evaluation of Unpacking Employment Support: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment with J-PAL MENA and constructing Egypt’s Multidimensional Poverty Index with the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative. Previously, she was an Associate Professor of Economics at the Universities of Canada in Egypt and the British University in Egypt. She was also a Research Fellow at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota and Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research, University of Michigan. She served as Senior Economist at the Tahya-Misr Fund. She received my PhD and MA in Economics from Helwan University. Her work focuses on establishing sustainable partnerships between universities, government, and development practitioners to advance policy-driven research and foster effective planning for development initiatives promoting employment, microenterprise development, female empowerment, family development, education and health.

Drivers of educational inequality in Jordan during the pandemic

Education
Health care
February 21, 2023

Jordan had one of the most stringent lockdowns in response to Covid-19, with schools closed for long periods. As this column explains, the variation in children’s access to online learning has led to greater inequality in educational outcomes.

Inequalities in Jordan before and after the pandemic

Is Covid-19 increasing inequalities in Jordan? This column outlines the main findings of a new report on the impact of the pandemic on inequality in expenditure, incomes and educational opportunities and outcomes.

Inequality of income and education in Jordan

The global pandemic seems likely to result in greater inequality across multiple dimensions, including income, education, gender and geography. This column reports pre-crisis evidence from Jordan on the extent of income inequality, inequality in educational outcomes and inequality in educational opportunities. Proposed policy responses include investing in education; awareness campaigns; ensuring equal access to the internet and social security; subsidising school supplies conditional on parental income and wealth; and imposing stricter measures to combat child labour.

Economies of agglomeration and firm productivity in Egypt

There is a strong body of international evidence that firms are more productive when they cluster near one another geographically. This column reports new findings on the substantial productivity benefits of such agglomeration in Egypt. The results have important implications for policy, including the value of establishing specialised industrial zones for promising business clusters with high growth potential.

Artificial intelligence has the potential to bridge the gap between abundant natural resources and the pressing need for reliable, sustainable power in the Middle East and North Africa. This column outlines the constraints and proposes policies that can address the challenges of variability of renewable resources and stress on power grids, and support the transformation of ‘sunlight’ to ‘smart power’.

Arab youth and the future of work

The Arab region’s labour markets are undergoing a triple transformation: demographic, digital and green. As this column explains, whether these forces evolve into engines of opportunity or drivers of exclusion for young people will hinge on how swiftly and coherently policy-makers can align education, technology and employment systems to foster adaptive skills, inclusive institutions and innovation-led pathways to decent work.

Digitalising governance in MENA: opportunities for social justice

Can digital governance promote social justice in MENA – or does it risk deepening inequality and exclusion? This column examines the evolution of digital governance in three sub-regions – Egypt, Jordan and the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council – highlighting how data practices, transparency mechanisms and citizen trust shape the social outcomes of technological reform.

Wrong finance in a broken multilateral system: red flags from COP30-Belém

With the latest global summit on climate action recently wrapped up, ambitious COP pledges and initiatives continue to miss delivery due to inadequate commitments, weak operationalisation and unclear reporting systems. As this column reports, flows of climate finance remain skewed: loans over grants; climate mitigation more than climate adaptation; and weak accountability across mechanisms. Without grant-based finance, debt relief, climate-adjusted lending and predictable multilateral flows, implementation of promises will fail.

Why political connections are driving business confidence in MENA

This column reports the findings of a new study of how the political ties of firms in the Middle East and North Africa boost business confidence. The research suggests that this optimism is primarily driven by networked access to credit and lobbying, underscoring the need for greater transparency and institutional reform in corporate governance.

The Forum ERF

ERF